making up my mind

July 21, 2016 #PassthescopeEDU What’s New? Creative Mojo.

After Constructive Modern Knowledge Conference (my last post), my task was to play “passthescopeEDU” with a network of educators who are exploring social media to amplify our voices. This means a five to ten minute live-streamed video post that we take turns with all day, once per month.

Periscope is our app, hence the name #passthescopeEDU. We’ve been experimenting with it for about a year and are now using it more. It allows us to read an audience including our selves and those who happen to follow us and anyone else who happens to jump on board. Each month, we work on expanding our reach a bit more and developing our skill with the medium.

The theme in July was about our “creative mojo” and whatever was “new” in our worlds.

There was a lot on my plate, and the impulse was to make sure I covered it all. That’s what being a classroom teacher does to us as presenters. We feel that we need to cover it all.

While I did make a list to have nearby, I made it a point not to look at it. (I made it until the last moment.) Instead, I worked on having an interesting introduction and a graphic that would look at least a tiny bit polished. I have not been trying to make a huge impression, by any means.

It’s more that our network is developing some consistency and attempting to keep some momentum. For me, I need to be myself. I can’t make myself into something I’m not. This effort is to enhance what I have, not to alter my image.

So I used the Digital LED Belt to begin the broadcast, and worked out a way to use the tripod so that I could step back. It was a little awkward when I had to remove the iphone from the tripod and carry it with me to the deck where I planned to sit. Also, I realized that I had planned to use my laptop to display the Canva image I had made. This was not a good idea. I should have had it on my iPad and held it up to the camera on the phone.

I showed the view from the deck as a segue into sitting at the table, and I managed to cover most of what I intended. It was great to have an audience to interact with. This is the power of Periscope. Unfortunately, when I download the recording, the comments from the audience do not download with it. So the recording, which I then uploaded to YouTube, shows me interacting with an invisible audience. Now that Periscope is maintaining the broadcasts, I can also link directly to Periscope TV.